Heater



A. D. OLDSI July 6,1937.

HEATER Filed May 18, 1954 INVENTOR. M15205: 0. 0105 BY fi g? ATTORNEY.

Patented July 6, 1937 rarsu'r OFFICE HEATER Ambrose D. Olds, Wichita,Kans.

Application May 18,

2 Claims.

This invention relates to heaters and particularly to that class knownas floor furnaces wherein the furnace is set in a floor with the topflush therewith, and the furnace proper extending be- 5 low the floor.The primary object of the invention is to increase the efficiency offloor furnaces, that is to construct a furnace in which more air can behandled through the furnace than is generally possible with known typesof devices.

Floor furnaces have been used prior to my invention but all theconstructions of which I have any knowledge have certain inherentdisadvantages. For example, the success'of a device of this kind dependsto a large extent upon the ability of the device to handle a relativelylarge quantity of air passing through it. If the air flow is retarded,the thermal efiiciency of the furnace is decreased, but if a relativelylarge amount of air can pass through the furnace in unobstructed fiow,the furnace will become more efiicient, so I have provided means wherebythe maximum amount of air will be handled.

Another important feature of the invention resides in the fact that theinlet to the cold air chamber which discharges into the heating chamberwill be relatively large as compared with the remaining cross-section ofthe cold air chamber so that the cold air will readily flow from thefloor into the cold air chamber and the warmed air instead ofbeingdischarged from the furnace in parallel stream lines will have itsstream-lines bent inwardly or upwardly so that some. of the streamlines-will contact with others to spread the heated air in what might betermed a broad angular spray so that the air will be diffused over arelatively wide area, thus more efficiently heating the room than wouldbe possible if the hot air flowed through in vertical stream linestoward the ceiling where it would be liable to stratify instead of beingdiffused over the floor space which is the most important part of theroom to heat.

The cold air chamber has a top air inlet and a curved bottom to bend theair stream lines in a reverse direction to counterflow up through theheating chamber to induce. a free unobstructed flow of air through thefurnace whereby the maximum amount of air will pass by and through theheating zone. Y

The casing for the heating chamber has 'a constricted outlet withinwardly sloping walls to provide a relatively wide entranceopening forthe air chamber which surrounds it. This permits the easy entrance ofthe air into the furnace and diverts the upfiowing stream lines of hotair so 1934, Serial No. 726,202

that they are directed inwardly to cause a certain amount of agitationdestroying their parallelism to thus insure diffusion of the hot air ina relatively large area in the room.

There are other novel features of the invention,

all of which will be specifically described herewall of the cold airchamber showing the-"burner:

Referring now .to the drawing by numerals of reference, i. designatesthe floor of a room in which the furnace is to be installed, and 2designates thejoists or other supports to which the casing, forming thecold air chamber, is secured.

The outer casing 3 is provided with four vertical walls 4, 5, 6, and l,with inwardly and upwardly curved lower edges 8, preferably in the formof a part of a spiral surrounding a floor 9. The upper edges of thewalls surround a space [0 covered by a register or cover ll.

Within the casing 3-is a heating chamber consisting of a shell havingwalls l2 and I3 held in spaced relation by the channels M to provide aninsulating space 15; the bottom of the heating chamber being open andspaced above the curved edges 8 so that thecold air may enter saidheating chamber while the upper part of the heating chamber carries aconstricted open ended outlet I5 with inwardly sloping walls to preventparallel upflow of the hot air causing the stream lines of the hot airto bend inwardly to impinge one upon another and thus diifuse them overa relatively large area. The inwardly sloping walls of the outlet l5also form a relatively large inlet l6 for the cold air. The heaterwithin the heating chamber includes a suitable burner ll supplied -withfuel from a suitable source such as gas,

through a pipe l8, having a T connection H] to which a pilot burner 25is connected by a pipe 2 I,

the burner ll being connected to the T connection through a pipe 22. Thetwo pipes are. provided 1 with valves 23 and 24.

The combusted gases pass up through an elongated rectangular heatercasing 25 having a transparent cover 26 so the burner will be visiblethrough the wall of the burner casing. The products of combustiondischarge through a pipe 21 into a downdraft elongated enclosingrectangular radiator 28 having a discharge pipe 29 adapted to beconnected to achimney or flue in any wellknown manner.

A hot air flue 30 open at its ends, passes through the radiator.ambdischarges into the hood l5, it being understood that the cold airpasses around the radiator and around the heater casing as well 'theouter casing are an important feature of my as through the flue and thatthe casing 25 is spacedfrom the walls M by thepartitions or fins 3|which terminate short of the top and bottom of the cold air casing. Inactual practice the lower part of the casing 3 may be secured to thevertical walls by a lap joint 32. The actual construction of the casing3 however, may depart from that shown.

The curved lower edges of the side walls of invention since theyprevent-the down coming air forming eddy currents at the bottom of thecold air space which would so restrict the flow of the air at thecorners that the efficiency of the furnace would be materially afiected.By making it possible to reverse the flow of the air from the cold airpassageway to the heater space or chamber, a large volume of air willpass through the furnace and the efliciency of the furnace will beincreased.

I claim:

1. In a floor furnace an outer casing having an open topand closedbottom, an inner casing open at the top and bottom and spaced from thesides and bottom of the outer casing, anda heater within the innercasing, the marginal portions of the 5 bottom of the outer casing beingof upwardly opening trough shape, said portions extending below thelower edge of the inner casing topoints inwardly of the inner casingwhereby to direct the down flow of air between the inner and outercasings in curving stream lines into the space between the inner casingand the heater;

- 2. In a floor furnace an outer casing forming 20 edge of the innercasing to points inwardly of the inner casing, whereby to direct thedown flow of airbetween the inner and outer casings in stream lines intothe space between the inner casing and the heater. r

AMBROSE D. OLDS.

